respectfully disagree in a general sense. I can't speak to this particular event, but pressure from owners often leads to bad decisions by captains. An owner can share the blame in at least two areas. Hiring skippers that lack good judgement and by placing real or implied pressure on them for a timely delivery. We don't know if either of these two causes were involved here. It is also true that one can do due diligence in who they hire and still have poor decisions made by otherwise competent skippers.

For certain, as the owner, I'd have a few "What were you thinking" type questions for them. Their answers might reveal whether I'd made a mistake in hiring them. I'd also be asking myself some questions about why did I choose them.

If I could pressue my skipper into making a bad decision, then it would mean I'd made two bad decisions at a minimum. One to put the pressure on them. Two, to hire skippers that could be pressured.

One of my greatest joys as a ship's master was saying no to my bosses. In my view, that's one of the reasons to hire me. I was the ultimate human line of defense, hired to protect the ship and it's owner's interests--even from the owners themselves.